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Thursday, 3 July 2008

How to turn fleece into socks - I hope!! This is one of the Jacob fleeces I was given, sorted, but unwashed. I sorted it outside a while ago, to remove the dirty, daggy and unkempt bits (on to the compost heap with them!), then it was rolled and stored over the winter.

Separated into manageable portions, and well washed in warm water with a bit of Ecover added, then well rinsed, and laid out on a sheet in the sun to dry - took two days to dry fully.

I decided to hand card this, as it shouldn't take too much for a pair of socks, and it's less disruption than clearing a huge space for the drum carder. I'll use the drum for the rest of the fleece, though I think. This is it on the carders, mid-card, with completed rolags behind. Just a few more!!!

A lovely fresh summer morning out there today; it's clear as a bella cross the vale, and fresh and green from last night's rainfall, much needed for the garden. I hope to get out there this afternoon and lift the sahllots and inspect the garlic, which has rust, and get a few things in where the first potateos have vacated their alloted spaces. I'm also making washing powder today, and hoping to card a bit more of the fleece - I'll put the fleece progress in a separate post. Tonight is parents' evening at the college - we'll go along and listen to see what Bean will be up to when she starts in September! We're very proud of her to have gained a place on her course of choice - a BTEC in Media & Moving Image. It can be done with home education, see? :0) I'm sure she'll love it, but will have to learn to get up early........

Tuesday, 1 July 2008

....here it is, first day of July. Anglo-Saxon names for the month include Heymonath or Maedmonath, referring respectively to haymaking and the flowering of the meadows; looking forward to some lovely summer weather, today is glorious out there, off out in a bit. This month we have St Swithin's day (15th) and the Tolpuddle FEstival, which I would love to go to, we'll see.

CROP CIRCLES

Apparently, July is THE month for crop circles..........a phenomenon dating from the 1970s. Who makes them? Extraterrestrials? Underlying energy fields? Freak weather conditions? Pranksters? I really don't know, but my Muscovy ducks did a good rendition of one in th middle of my wheat................:0)

Monday, 30 June 2008

This is the title of a lovely book by Marie-Christine Flocard and Cosabeth Parriaud, kindly lent to me by someone who reads my blog here. It's a beautiful book, and my favourite type - one that includes recipe as well. It's beautifully illustrated, and very evocative of the Provence I have read about and have taken a great shine to. Maybe I'll get there one day! I invested in some nice fabrics from e-bay, in Provence colours and motifs, and want to do my version of their memories of Provence quilt in the book, where the fabrics are interspersed with Provencal scenes printed on to fabric - a lovely idea, and very effecive I think. The recipes are very tempting - pain au thyme, clafoutis aux abricots................

On this day in 1980, the British sixpence ceased to be legal tender. I remember them well - we had a Saturday sixpence each when I was wee, to do what we liked with, usually spent on the penny tray in the village shop :) I still have a couple of them, and they go in the Christmas pudding every year.

I don't mind housework - there I've said it!!! However, our house is usually quite untidy, with stuff all over the place in the middle of being worked with, current projects, things on their way elsewhere, etc. Thus, it all has to be tidied and sorted before being cleaned; I find it hard to keep on top of, but I do try. I'm currently reading a 1930s Household Management book, the section on "Household Routine"; interesting readg, and I thought it might be good if I worked out a routine for myself, but not sure if I would/could stick to it! With 3 of us more or less here all the time, it doesn't seem to stay tidy for long.

I think I might have a read at the Nearing's books again. They did their "bread labour" - anything that needed doing, housework, cooking, preserving, etc - in the mornings, with afternoons free for crafts, gardening, reading, music etc. That would be lovely if I could get it organised to that level. Wonder if I can? So, this week has thereby been deisnated "Get the House Sorted Week". Wish me luck........:) :)

To get me off to a good start, I did buy some new clothes pegs, as MrL purloined a load of my spring pegs to clip some camo netting on the sun umbrella frame over the bench................

Sunday, 29 June 2008

Yes - it was Guild day yesterday!!!! :0) That'll be the Dorset Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers then........ The talk yesterday was on letters in tapestry weaving by Pat Johns, a well-known tapestry weaver. She showed a selection o fslides of ehr work, then we got to look closely at the tapestries she had brought along for us to see; stunning work, beautiful calligraphy lettering on sumptuous backgrounds. Truly gorgeous.......I managed to bag some bargains on the sales table too, lots of coloured roving and spun woll, bits and pieces, a huge amount for 4.00. The money goes to Guild funds, so taht's good. Also procured a free jacob fleece (didn't "need" it as such, but had it anyway ;)), so might do that one next week.I washed one of my own Jacob fleeces today, almost dry, so should be ready for the drum carder by Tuesday I hope; I got two from a friend of Bean's, with a promise to knit him some socks with some of it. Another project underway.Did a bit out in the garden today, but baked bread and did most of the ironing too, so quite a lot of little bits achieved. I also washed my new pieces of Provence fabrics I won on e-bay; I want to make a little Provence wall quilt, inspired by a lovely book I am reading, lent to me by Jenni, to whom I lent my Shantyboat book in return. The book has both quilting patterns and Provence recipes in - quite a heady mixture.............The little yellow foxglove in the picture was one I picked up at a little out of the way nursery on the way home from Wimborne on Friday; the lady who runs the nursery didn't knwo its name, but I didn't mind, it's such a pretty shade of yellow, soft and buttery........... Thought I'd better avail myself of a huge pot, crammed full of auriculas too - I reckon with judicious splitting I can get at least 6 out of it - nice bargain

Welcome to my blog

Open on my lap

This is an uncopyrighted blog!

I'm happy to share freely whatever is posted up here on Unbought Delicacies - feel free to copy and share recipes, patterns, my pictures, tips, etc - I really don't mind, and like to think that my advice and experiences learned over the years is being shared with a wider audience. If there's anything I don't want copied or shared, it won't appear here.

This is me............

I have found such joy

I have found such joy in simple things;A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,The shelter of a roof above my head,And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,Where yellow sunlight glimmers through the door.I have found such joy in things that fillMy quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,A potted plant upon my window sill,A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,And books I long have loved beside me there.Oh, I have found such joys I wish I mightTell every woman who goes seeking farFor some elusive, feverish delight,That very close to home the great joys are:The elemental things- old as the race,Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

Handmade books, personalised printed notepaper and envelopes.Hamper of bits and bobs from the above lists, packed in a pretty lined basket.

I'll add some more as and when I think of them; These can be used all year round and easily tailored to the recipient - everyone loves a homemade gift. :)

Currently on the needles

Autumn leaves scarf

Crochet blanket/s

Shetland Fairisle kits

Dishcloths

Wartime Farm Fairisle top

Inspiring thoughts.............

I saw a man, an old Cilician, who occupied an acre or two of land that no one wanted.A patch not worth the ploughing, unrewarding for flocks, unfit for vineyards;he, however, by planting here and there among the scrub cabbages or white lilies and verbena and flimsy poppies, fancied himself a king in wealth, and coming home late in the evening, loaded his board with unbought delicacies.Virgil

I had no theories to prove. I merely wanted to try living by my own hands, independently as far as possible from a system of division of labour in which the participant loses most of the pleasure of making and growing things for himself. I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smell as it burned in the hearth I had made. I wanted to grow my own food, or forage after it. In short I wanted to do as much as I could for myself, because I had already realised from partial experience the inexpressible joy of doing so.